Not Our First Abduction
by Coffee Fueled Author
Summary: Alien activity is pretty common in South Park. Stan is barely surprised when a dozen or more children are forced on a spaceship and taken far away. Things turn drastic when, in attempting escape, one kid fails to avoid capture. They'll have to find help to rescue their buddy and get back home. Without it, they'll be forced to fly the broken ship themselves, and leave Kyle stranded.
1. Chapter 1: A Perfect Night

**Another new story. Remember, I'm starting all these new stories to raise interest in my work! If I can get enough people excited about my writing and willing to become donating patrons, I'll be able to write all of these stories and finish all my old works as well! And I have a TON of story ideas! For more info on that, just check my bio here! And remember; Patrons get all sorts of bonuses! So support my work today!**

 **This story is a bit of a weirder one. And, unlike a lot of my stories, this one is rated for mild language. Just thought I'd give a heads up.**

 **Also, I actually intended to have the first big plot point occur in this chapter, but it wound up making it FAR too long. So it was split up into two parts. The next one will include the first major event. This one still has all the important set up stuff to help start us out on this crazy tale!**

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Chapter 1: A Perfect Night

"See, what did I tell you? You just let Kenny get killed again."

Stan watched Kenny's lifeless body flop over in a pathetic heap as a 'told-you-so' sort of smirk spread across his face and he nestled himself deeper into the pillow behind him, pleased with his correct prediction.

Kyle, who sat just beside Stan with his weight leaned back on his hands, laughed in response. "Bastard." He jokingly accused.

"Yeah, thanks a lot, dude." Kenny added, most of his mumbled voice absorbed into his thick coat. Despite his sarcastic words, his tone was that of a more playful teasing rather than actually angry or upset.

"Hey! I'm doing the best I can!" Cartman, who was seated atop the old, somewhat discolored couch, snapped in mild irritation. "It's not my fault that Kenny's impatient and keeps going towards the turrets I haven't gotten to yet!"

Kenny giggled quietly at the accusation, knowing it was true but still more than willing to poke fun at the larger boy nonetheless. In the end, though, no real harm was done, as Kenny's robotic avatar reappeared on his side of the screen in only a few seconds time, good as new.

"Why don't you just shoot a portal on the floor beneath each turret?" Kyle curiously questioned, rearranging his feet in front of him. "That way, you can take them out faster and Kenny can cut through to the end and hit the switch."

Cartman, who's character had just wandered into the line of fire of an enemy, jumped slightly in his seat and deftly manipulated the controller firmly held in his grasp, guiding his avatar back to safety. "It's not that easy, Kyle!" He growled. "Can't you see the gray floor below them? You cant shoot portals on gray, stupid."

"Well, then just shoot a portal behind them all." Stan suggested, watching Kenny's side of the screen as he opened up some portals on the walls around Cartman's character and rejoined him in the main room of the current puzzle. "You can knock em all over at once."

Having been stuck on this particular level for a while now, Cartman was surprisingly open to his friends suggestions. Trusting Stan knew what he was talking about, he shot a portal across the room and behind the army of sentry turrets that guarded the far switch.

By the time he noticed what he had just done, he was too late to take it back. The positioning of his portals along with the ones Kenny had just used to reenter the room had strung themselves together and provided one of the sentries with a clear view of the two 'intruder' players. The turrets quipped a brief warning before mowing both targets down in a hail of bullets. Cartman and Kenny's characters, now with more holes than Swiss cheese, crumbled to the floor like rag dolls. They would be forced to both re-spawn to start the puzzle over.

Thankfully, the entire situation proved more humorous than frustrating. All four of the boys gathered around the basement tv roared with laughter, amazed at how perfectly all their moves had come together to create such a disaster.

"Man, screw this game, you guys." Cartman tried in vain to repress a chuckle, callously tossing his game controller to the floor near the other boys. "I'm gonna grab another soda."

Kyle, having gone the longest since his last turn, didn't hesitate in claiming the thrown device. "I'll take a sprite." He called out, taking control of the robotic avatar and heading off with Kenny's towards the puzzle.

"Yeah, me too." Stan added flatly.

"Jesus, what am I, everyone's moms?" Cartman growled, yanking open the door to the mini fridge beneath the stairs.

* * *

For this group of snarky and mischievous fourth grade boys, special nights like these were the best parts of their young lives. Nights where they could all be together, doing what they loved without any unwanted adult intervention. Though few and far between, they were moments where all four of the ten year old's could get along, too distracted by pizza and video games to quarrel.

This particular night had been made possible by Eric Cartman's mother. After hurriedly passing off her son to the Marsh's household a week prior, claiming a particular 'client' of hers had suddenly requested her appearance in a town several hours away, she felt as though she owed the other mothers of the boys for always being willing to lend a helping hand. So she had allowed Eric to invite Stan, Kyle, and Kenny over for an impromptu party that weekend. It was nothing much; she bought the boys their favorite pizzas and snacks, stocked the downstairs mini fridge, and helped her son to set up all his video game consoles with the big flat screen tv in the basement. Simple enough, but exactly what made for a perfect night in the children's minds.

* * *

Cartman returned a moment later, chucking one can of soda each onto Stan and Kyle's backs, eliciting small exclamations of surprise and discomfort. In a rare show of human decency, Cartman had even grabbed an extra drink for Kenny, knowing he would most likely want one despite not having asked for it like the others. Kenny acknowledged this act of kindness with a muffled 'thank you', knowing not to make a big deal out of it if he ever wanted little things like this to happen again.

Making sure to avoid allowing his portals to line up with Kenny's, Kyle successfully transported himself behind the wall of baddies. Out of their line of fire, he deftly picked up one of the turrets and used it as a battering ram to knock the others to the floor like a chain of dominoes. The downed sentries fired a frenzy of panicked shots before finally deactivating, allowing Kenny to safely traverse the area and the two players to reach the exit.

"Nice, dude." Stan complimented, reaching a hand out as Kenny passed his controller to the boy seated on the floor.

Kyle took a quick moment to flash a smug smile towards the two sitting on the couch behind him, popping open his soda like a well-earned reward. Cartman rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, whatever." He grumbled. "It's easy when you don't get screwed over by Kenny's dumb portals."

The boys continued the game in this fashion, solving the steady stream of logic and skill puzzles and trading the two controllers off whenever one got frustrated or one had gone too long without playing. Whoever wasn't currently in control of the pair of video game robots would shout suggestions or inane insults at the others, happily munching on more pizza or curling up in the mess of pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags.

It was after the quartet arrived at a particularly difficult puzzle that they finally decided they had had enough of the current game. Cartman had backed the console into its main menu once more, then lifted himself from his seat to retrieve and safely put away the still warm disc that had just been playing.

"How did it even expect us to get past that level?" Stan took a moment to lift to his feet and stretch his stiff back.

"I think you were supposed to paint a ramp using that goo stuff." Kenny responded as he leapt off the couch and began to make his way towards the stairs. "I'll be right back, guys."

If not for the lack of a bathroom, the boys would never emerge from the basement during a night such as this. Liane would only catch brief glimpses of the boys as they emerged from the basement door, decorated with a "MOM STAY OUT" poster written in angry scribbles, and went directly into the bathroom, only sometimes offering a 'hey' or other form of acknowledgement as they passed.

Cartman had talked the remaining two boys into briefly switching consoles to play their next video game, as it was a console exclusive. With a knowledge built upon experience, the larger boy quickly deactivated and detached the many connections that tied the Xbox 360 to the television. The tv, free of the systems signal, returned to the all-day movie channel that it had been set to before the boys had started gaming. As Cartman grabbed the equipment needed to rig up his Nintendo Switch dock, Stan and Kyle couldn't help but watch the current film now playing on the large, flat screen.

A young boy attempted to control a small, withered looking creature through his home, as it did it's best to poke and prod at everything and get into all the stuff it wasn't supposed to. When being forcefully moved, the creature responded with ugly, goose-like wails, slightly extending its long, wrinkled neck for better vantage points.

"Geez." Stan commented with a smirk, taking a free spot on the plush couch behind him. "I guess I've never seen this movie in high def. I didn't realize just how ugly E.T. really is."

Kyle, momentarily recalling the director of this film and shuddering slightly, still not over some past trauma involving the man, nodded slowly and joined his best friend on the seat. "Yeah, I never liked him, honestly." He quipped. "He's ugly and stupid and whines a lot about nothing. And what kind of kid would bring an unidentifiable alien into their house?"

Beside him, Stan laughed in agreement, just as Cartman succeeded in connecting the new console causing the movie to disappear and the Nintendo Switch menu to take its place. "I know! I would'a called the cops! Or, like, the Men in Black or something. A kid shouldn't be handling alien life forms by himself! What if they turned out to be hostile?"

"I'd actually be more concerned about catching some sort of alien virus or disease or something." Kyle took another sip of his drink. "Who knows what kind of contamination that things got on it? It's probably covered in bacteria that our bodies would never be able to fight against!"

"Doesn't the kid wind up getting sick and dying because of just that?" Cartman asked, roughly forcing Stan over a few inches so he could take his favorite spot at the arm of the couch.

Having been Cartman's 'friend' for so long, Stan barely took notice of the forceful re-positioning. "He doesn't die, fatass. He gets sick when the alien gets sad or sick or whatever. But then he gets better and the alien goes home. The end."

"Pff, close enough." The larger boy was more than used to the mean spirited nickname and didn't give it a second thought. "The movie sucks anyway."

"Agreed." Kyle nodded.

"You guys!" Kenny shouted from the top of the stairs, trying his best to project his voice through the fluffy barrier around his face. "You gotta come up here! Eric's mom set up Make Your Own Sundaes!"

"No way!" Cartman immediately discarded the colorful joy-cons in his hands and bolted up the stairs much faster than the speed he usually moved at.

"Dude, sweet!" Kyle added, he and Stan following close behind the other two.

It truly was one of those rare, perfect nights for the boys. One they'd be sure to remember for many years to come. Nothing could spoil a night like this.

At least, that's what they had thought. But the strange, heavily armed vehicle beginning its descent through the layers of atmosphere above was about to prove otherwise.


	2. Chapter 2: As the Night Screamed

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Chapter 2: As the Night Screamed

Stan awkwardly shifted beneath his polyester cocoon, fluttering just on the edge of consciousness. Not wanting to be torn from his peaceful slumber just yet, his body produced an almost instinctive groan as he buried his face further into his thick pillow, a sort of signal to the world to leave him be and let him sleep.

The four boys had managed to stay up surprisingly late that night, fueled by their massive intake of sugar and caffeine. Getting to make their own sundaes only allowed them to pile more deliciously sweet toppings onto the already indulgent ice cream. And, of course, being kids, they had taken the whole thing to unhealthy extremes. When they once more returned to their basement hideaway, they were entirely wired, laughing and shouting at their games and playing with whatever random toys they could find hidden all around.

No one was quite sure what time it had been when their overstimulated hyperactivity finally began to wane. They became much more sedentary and reserved, preferring now to simply watch movies and talk quietly to each other, sharing secrets and gossip that they'd never tell anyone else.

Finally they decided to turn in, passing out on random scattered spaces on the basements carpeted floor, each wrapped tightly in their unique, decorated sleeping bags, some with beloved stuffed animals tightly wrapped in the crooks of their arms. Their perfect night had come to a perfect close. All that remained was a long, restful sleep.

That's what they would've hoped for, at least. But as Stan once more writhed and squirmed within his cover, his groans now high pitched whines of frustration, it seemed like that restful slumber was being forcefully taken away from him. Something had woken him up, and now an odd ominous feeling was keeping him from simply returning to sleep.

Now more awake and aware of the situation, Stan exhaled a low growl, weakly lifting his head from the pillow and blinking his sleep-sensitive eyes to see what it was that had disturbed him.

Stan was more than a little surprised to find himself and a large patch of the floor he was seated on was bathed in a eerie, sea-foam green glow. Curious and somewhat alarmed, his tired eyes followed the light to its source. The glow was coming in from the long basement window perched high on the wall. Continuing to study the area, he realized that the light hadn't landed on any of the other sleeping boys, which is why he was the only one currently conscious.

The un-explainable and strikingly colorful light quickly made Stan feel uneasy. In an effort to bring his stress levels down, he decided to wake one of his friends for their opinion on the matter.

Stan crawled on his hands and knees towards the nearest slumbering boy and gently put a hand on top of the sleeping bag cover. "Kyle..?" He whispered sharply. "Kyle! Wake up!"

Just as Stan had done before, Kyle responded to the interruption by groaning and turning away. His iconic green hat, which he had worn to bed as usual, was now sloppily askew, revealing a few of his loose red curls of hair. He half consciously pulled his pillow tightly into his chest and face, hiding himself from the waking world.

But his friend was persistent. "Come on, Kyle!" His whispers had increased in volume and he roughly shook a shoulder beneath the blanket. "Come on! Wake up!"

"Why...?" Kyle whined, finally more conscious, rolling over to face the voice that stirred him but still keeping his tired eyes closed. "What's wrong..?"

"There's some freaky green light shining in through the window." Stan quietly explained. "I have no idea what it is but it woke me up and it isn't going away."

Kyle's eyes opened into thin slits as he stared at Stan in confusion, his still waking mind pondering what he had just said. But as his vision came into focus, it became hard to ignore the ambient green glow that illuminated Stan's perplexed face and the majority of the rest of the room. Kyle lifted his heavy head for a better look at the window, and, sure enough, the strange light was pouring in from somewhere out there. His mind quickly scrambled to decide what could be producing such a glow, but he couldn't think of any plausible cause.

"I... What is that?" Kyle murmured in awe and fatigue.

"Woah, dude. Why is it so bright?"

Stan and Kyle quickly looked up to the couch where the third voice had come from. They hadn't even realized that Kenny had awoken during Stan's attempts to rouse Kyle, but now he sat half draped in blankets with his hood slightly pulled back and stared intently at the strange light. His eyes shifted to meet the other boys' gazes, trying to make certain they were all seeing the same anomaly.

"I don't know..." Stan turned back to the glowing window. "It's so strong. It almost feels like someone just outside is shining a spotlight in here."

As the three boys continued to study the ominous light, wondering what, if anything, they should do about it, they suddenly heard an electronic humming sound quickly approaching from outside. A small metal sphere of some sort approximately the size of a golf ball shot its way through the window with a crack, leaving what almost looked like a bullet hole in the glass. It hovered there for a few seconds, then slowly drifted down closer to the boys on the floor, floating steadily in the air and continuing to produce an audible hum.

The children had immediately frozen when the strange device had entered, completely at a loss about how to react. Now that it was floating so close, Stan could see little divots and patterns on the orb; buttons and slots and tiny lights and sensors. Whatever this machine was, it had been built by an intelligent life form, but seemed extremely inhuman in design.

"What is it?" Kyle finally questioned after it became clear that the sphere wasn't moving from its spot.

"It looks like... a camera? A sensor, maybe?" Stan cautiously leaned in for a better view but was somewhat held at bay by the unsettling hum of its hovering.

Just then, the orb produced three short beeps, each accompanied by a little flashing blue light at the objects core. Two panels, one on either side of the sphere, slid open, and long fan-like blades emerged from within. Once the protrusions had locked into place, the orb suddenly blasted an electronic squeal at a pitch and volume higher than the boys ever thought possible. At the same time, the fan like blades began to spin at an incredible speed, making the screeching device appear more like a floating buzz saw.

Stan, Kenny, and Kyle immediately threw their hands over their ears, the insanely high pitched sound feeling like a drill through their skulls. It was so painful, yet so piercing that it was virtually inescapable.

Cartman shot awake with a terrified scream, also trying in vain to protect his aching ears. "What!? Who!?" He shrieked, almost inaudible beneath the orbs unbearable volume. "What the hell is going on!? What is that!?"

"Make it stop!" Kenny pleaded, attempting to tighten the hood around his head to drown out the screech.

The device, still emitting the excruciating noise, began to move forward, floating towards the boys, the blades still spinning at top speed. Stan, who was closest to the orb, clumsily bolted to his feet, hands never straying from the sides of his head.

"Go!" He ordered. "Run!"

Stan didn't have to tell them twice. The four boys took off towards the stairs, almost tripping over their own feet as they ascended to the main floor at light speed. They all four shouted for Cartman's mother, pleading for an adult to save them from this madness. The basement door slammed open, and the kids set their sites on the next set of stairs.

Much to their horror, getting to the second floor was no longer an option. Floating just above the first step with menacing whirling blades gleaming in the low light was a second metal sphere identical to the first, screaming the same earsplitting tone, acting as a barrier.

The boys ground themselves to a halt, not about to risk trying to bypass the saw like device. But with the stairs blocked off, they were at a loss as to what to do; where to run. It seemed Cartman's mother was completely inaccessible now. They frantically wondered how she could manage to sleep through the deafening squealing, nevermind their own terrified screams. But they weren't able to think about it for long. The orb above the stairs began slowly approaching, and the one from before was creeping ever closer behind them. Needing to find a new escape, the four boys sprinted towards the front door.

The entrance to the green house exploded open, and the panicked kids spilled out into the night, blindly running as far as possible from their attackers. As they flew down the cement path, they noticed they hadn't been the only victims. From the houses all around them, kids came screaming out their front doors and into the street, several of the bladed spheres visible following slowly behind. The children had begun to flock together in clumps in the middle of the road, huddling close in terror, with that shrill electronic tone screaming all around them. The boys recognized many of the children. One small boy in particular caught Kyle's eye.

"Ike!" Kyle shrieked, his older-brother instincts taking hold at the sight of his sibling in such pain and fear. A new jolt of energy surged through him, and he sprinted even faster towards the scared little boy crying out in the street.

Ike's tear stained eyes snapped up immediately at the familiar voice. "Kyle!" He sobbed pathetically, barely having enough time to raise his arms before his older brother tackled him in a protective embrace. Ike wailed and cried into Kyle's chest, nearly failing to hear the older boy's attempts to comfort him beneath the continued screams of the strange machines making their ways out of the nearby houses.

Stan, Cartman, and Kenny were not far behind.

"They're everywhere!" Stan panted as he joined the group in the street. "What are we gonna do!?"

Clyde, one of the other children standing terrified in the road, suddenly thrust a finger towards the night sky. "Look!" He shrieked, pointing to the heavens.

The other kids followed the gesture to the huge, unidentifiable space craft now looming overhead. The heavily armed and astoundingly complex vehicle was roughly triangular in shape, with tightly curved wings on either side. Several spot lights lined the ships perimeter, each one shining a blinding green light into a nearby home. An open panel on its underbelly allowed a steady stream of the mysterious spherical devices both in and out of its interior.

Cartman's brow lowered at the realization of the extraterrestrial explanation behind this strange attack. The boys, especially Cartman, had had their lives interrupted by alien invasion more times than they'd like to admit too. Knowing that it was once again to blame for their problems made the ill tempered boy's fear turn to anger.

"Oh god." He furiously growled, making sure to speak loud enough to be heard. "What do THESE guys want?"

By now, a full ring of the deafening machines had completely encircled the cluster of children, their high speed blades ensuring that not a one would dare attempt an escape. As the kids pressed themselves closer together, the ear splitting squeals lowered to a more reasonable volume, allowing them to hear the new sound that came from overhead.

The ominous ship hanging in the night sky emitted a chorus of metallic creaks and groans as two long barreled cannons beneath each wing slowly twisted and turned until they pointed directly at the horrified children below. With a deep and intimidating hum, the inside of the barrels began to glow in a neon green, charging it's attack.

Kyle clung tightly to his little brother. Kenny breathed a defeated expletive.

That's when the cannons fired.


	3. Chapter 3: Nowhere to Run

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Chapter 3: Nowhere to Run

The feeling of raw terror and helplessness was almost palpable in the predawn mountain air. Children clung to one another in tight clusters along the street, their horrified faces pointed skyward, their mouths agape but unable to scream. Above them, the looming alien spaceship with cannons aimed square at the nearest group had just finished charging the ominous weapon. Finally, a brilliantly bright ball of powerful energy exploded out of the twin cannons with a thunderous crack that shook the sky, traveling at an incredible speed towards the clutch of terrified juveniles.

Just as Stan saw the cannons fire, just as the fearsome crack tore through the air and rattled his very bones, time seemed to suddenly slow to a crawl. The neon projectiles that had been traveling near the speed of sound were now inching through the sky, their high pitched whistling becoming a low and menacing rumble of untamed energy radiating from their cores as they slowly neared their target. The kids around him were almost as still as statues; the strange electronics surrounding them now spinning slow enough that Stan could see their individual blades. It was as if he had somehow broken loose from times tight grip , even if only momentarily.

In that fraction of a second, with his senses still heightened, Stan's madly darting eyes discovered a weakness in the barrier that surrounded them. A few of the blade wielding orbs that made up the circle were hovering noticeably higher than the rest. It hadn't left the biggest opening, but it was Stan's only chance at escaping the incoming cannon fire.

Not even taking a moment to think, Stan threw himself forward, diving onto the pavement and sliding just underneath the whirling razors. Despite his odds, he managed to escape without a scratch, save for the small amount of fuzz that had been shaved off the puff ball of his hat. But what would become of the others? Of his friends? In a frenzy of panicked gasps, he frantically scrambled to his feet and whipped back around.

Time roared back to normal speed in an instant, and Stan watched in absolute horror as the ball of unfathomable energy impacted the ground with a deafening blast. There was a sudden flash followed by a beastly rumble, as the spherical projectile suddenly ballooned into a sizable and semi transparent dome, its diameter the same size as the buzz saw barrier. The kids caught in the impact site, who thankfully appeared unharmed, now floated freely in the crackling dome, struggling and writhing in the air as they tried their hardest to return to Terra Firma. But the interior of the energy shield was completely unaffected by gravity. They were trapped, hanging effortlessly above the ground with no way back down.

Stan stared wide eyed at the five children now encased in this force field. Kyle, who had been nearest to Stan, gaped back in awe and bewilderment, his mind too riddled with questions to think clearly. Ike hovered just beside him, still crying and waving his arms frantically in an effort to move even slightly. Behind the two Broflovski children, Stan could just barely see Clyde, who had managed to flip upside down and whom he could hear fearfully sobbing for help. Next to Clyde was Jimmy, whom Stan had barely realized had been present in the circle, his crutches offering no help from his position above the ground. The only other child inside was Cartman, whos terrified face instantly twisted into an expression of anger when he locked eyes with Stan.

"Stan, you asshole!" He furiously shouted, his voice slightly muted as though he had been sealed in plastic. "You can't leave us here!"

"Please, Stan!" Kyle quickly added, still trying to move in the bubble of anti gravity. "You have to save us! You have to let us out!"

With the guilt of his own escape crashing over him like a tidal wave, Stan cautiously stepped closer to the electrified energy dome. "But I... How? What do I do?"

A rumbling overhead suddenly stole Stan's attention, and he turned his face skyward. The colossal space ship above had brought its engines to life, and the vehicle began to slowly creep across the night sky. It's twin cannons, which now seemed to point more in Stan's direction, once again began to glow, charging another shot.

"Stan!"

A hand tightly gripped the child's shoulder, startling a scream from Stan's throat. He quickly turned, more than a little surprised to see Kenny's mostly orange draped form standing just behind him, his dark brown glove holding firm. Somehow, in all the chaos, he too had found the opening and managed to escape the bladed barrier before the shot collided. He glared back through his hood with an intense expression and an aura of urgency.

"Stan!" He repeated, gesturing beyond their captive colleagues. "We'll have to come back for them! But we need to run! Now!"

The darker haired child followed his friends signal and quickly found that a new wall of those screeching, weaponized orbs was now sweeping their way down the street, only breaking formation to avoid the shield and all the captives within. Though they wanted only to rescue their closest companions, they knew that lingering here was no longer an option.

The duo whom had avoided the weightless trap gave one last solemn look at their comrades, the deepest feelings of guilt, shame, and hopelessness clearly visible upon their faces. Though it pained them to the very core, the two turned and bolted down the street at top speed, leaving the others behind amid a chorus of their desperate cries for help.

Stan and Kenny didn't have to run far before they passed another terrified huddle of kids herded together by a ring of flying buzz saws. A quick glance revealed that they, too, were all children that they recognized. Bebe hid her defeated sobs behind her petite hands. Tweek shrieked at a volume rivaling the electronic squeals, pressed back to back against Craig, who found he was too frightened to offer any words of comfort. Kevin spun in place loudly uttering a sci-fi mantra to himself, desperately looking for a way out.

"Guys! You have to run!" Stan screamed as he and Kenny sped by. "The space ship! It's shooting weird force fields! You'll be trapped!"

The clutch of kids turned to look at their fleeing companions, but most were unable to will their petrified bodies to move. Kevin, however, found the weakness in the wall he had been looking for, and Stan's warning served to give him that last bit of energy he needed to attempt his escape. He darted toward the lowest flying orb and, with surprising athleticism, leapt over the whirling barrier. At that same moment, a second crack exploded from the sky, and in less than a second the three remaining children were trapped within another alien dome of zero gravity. Kevin yelped in terror, and he joined Stan and Kenny on their mad dash through the street.

It wasn't long before they passed another group, and then another. One more child heeded their warnings and managed to find a gap large enough to escape before the canons fired, but the majority of those they past wound up trapped just like those before them. As the four free children continued on at top speed through the midnight mountain air, it seemed less and less likely that they would ever make it out of this alive.

Suddenly, Kenny came to a dead stop in the center of the street, completely oblivious to the others leaving him behind. Like Kyle before him, a cry had stolen every last ounce of his attention, and he whipped around to face the only sound that mattered to him now. In the group of huddled children nearest to him, he spotted the terrified face of his younger sister, crying hysterically as she desperately clung to the oldest of the McCormick kids.

"Karen!" He shouted, sprinting towards his frightened siblings.

Kenny's sudden exclamation took Stan by surprise, bringing his fleeing to a halt as he turned to investigate. He hadn't realized just how far Kenny had fallen behind. Though the wall of blades pressed forward and the ship above continued its attack, Kenny was no longer running from the danger, but rather choosing to go closer towards it.

"Kenny! We can't stop!" Stan screamed, jogging a few steps back, hoping perhaps to take hold of Kenny to drag him forward and keep him moving.

But the determined middle child was deaf to Stan's pleads. Stan simply couldn't understand the instinctive need to protect that Kenny and Kyle both possessed as older brothers. When their siblings cried out for them, it was as if nothing else in the world mattered.

Breathing in heavy pants, Kenny began scanning the nearby street for some sort of weapon or projectile. His eyes quickly fell upon a lifeless alien orb by his foot, one that had somehow managed to break and shut down, it's blades fully retracted. It was just what he needed. He nabbed the small electronic, sprinted the last few steps towards the barrier surrounding his family, and threw the metallic sphere with all his might.

The device impacted one of the active orbs dead center, and it immediately began to struggle. It sputtered a broken tone, its hovering beginning to fail and its blades beginning to spin randomly. As it shorted out, it managed to clip one of the other spheres just beside it, taking out one of its blades and gashing its core. The two injured orbs finally fell to the pavement, all their sound and movement finally ceasing.

Kenny's siblings quickly took notice of the break in the wall surrounding them. His older brother, the second boy named Kevin to be involved in the madness of this night, didn't hesitate in escaping, quickly dashing through the gap as one of the blades tore a thin slit in his already tattered shirt. He took his place beside his younger brother, only now realizing that Karen hadn't followed him and was still stuck in the cannons target.

Both of the McCormick boys called out to her, but to no avail. Karen was completely paralyzed with fear, especially since Kevin had only barely escaped being sliced in his side. She wasn't ready to attempt the same risky behavior. She backed into the kid behind her and frantically sobbed, at a loss for what to do.

Not waiting another second, Kenny bolted between the barriers gap and grabbed his tiny, frail sister by the shoulders. "Come on, Karen!" He pleaded, trying desperately to pull her forward; to make her move. "You need to run! We have to go!"

The loud crack that exploded from above indicated that it was too late.

"Kenny!" Stan and Kevin screamed in unison, watching the energy ball shoot through the air and encase Kenny and Karen in yet another gravity-less cage. They, too, were prisoners now. There was nothing left that could be done.

"Guys! Keep going!" Kenny gestured with one hand, his other tightly clutching Karen's quaking fingers. "You have to escape! Go! Find help!"

Stan opened his mouth to protest, but a gentle hand found his own and gripped him firmly. When he looked to its owner, he saw Kevin give him a worried yet empathetic nod before he turned and began to run, dragging Stan along with his surprising strength. Once they were moving fast enough, the older boy released his hold, trusting the younger to keep up the pace on his own.

Unfortunately, Stan fell victim to his own curiosity. He couldn't fight the temptation, and, as in the story of Lott and his wife, he turned to glance at the chaos behind him. With his attention diverted, he was unable to see the quickly approaching obstacle, a single disabled metal sphere laying motionless in the road. He stepped atop it, the orb quickly rolled, and Stan's foot flew out from beneath him, launching him backwards onto the pavement as his breath escaped him in a hollow wheeze.

He tried to stand, he tried to cry out, he tried so desperately just to breathe. But there would be no escaping this time. Struggling to take control of his paralyzed diaphragm, Stan gaped breathlessly towards the starry night sky, watching as it was slowly obscured by the monstrous shadow of the flying fortress above. Hope was lost. His friends had been captured. And now he, too, was at the mercy of the invading creatures.

The glowing barrel of the cannon was the last thing he saw before the weapon fired and Stan's vision faded to black.


	4. Chapter 4: The Face of Our Enemy

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Chapter 4: The Face of Our Enemy

"Stan..."

"Stan..?"

With a weak and warbeling groan, the young boy struggled to pull his concious mind back together. Everything seemed so distant, lost somewhere in a muddy haze. He could hear a voice calling out to him, and he fought to target his focus on its origin.

"Stan! Come on!" The voice shouted, each subsequent syllable sounding clearer than the last as Stan's foggy mind began to wake. "You have to get up! Please!"

Motivated by the desperate tone in the voice's pleading, Stan breathed an exaggerated moan to let the other party know that he was listening. Summoning his returning strength, he slowly rose to his hands and knees, blinking rapidly in an attempt to restart his vision. The black curtain of fatigue and confusion lifted from his eyes. Blurry shapes began to take form, and he leaned back to sit on his legs for a better view of the muddled figures around him. Almost immediately, the form standing closest to him became clear as day as his mind instantly recognized the familiar colors of orange and green.

"Kyle..?" Stan brought a shaky hand to his head as if to steady himself, his brow furrowed in thought.

"Stan! Dude, you're awake!" Kyle shouted excitedly, feeling a portion of the heavy weight of worries leaving his burdened shoulders. "We were starting to think you weren't ever gonna wake up!"

A significantly larger figure emerged from behind Kyle, looking to Stan with an annoyed and cynical expression. "Yeah, Stan." Cartman sarcastically sneered. "You were gonna miss all the fun."

Stan's mind suddenly began to race with questions; how did Kyle and Cartman break free of their dome prison? How had they found himself? What knocked him out for so long? Where were they now? How did they escape the alien ship and its weaponry? What 'fun' was Cartman referencing? It all felt like too much. Stan leaned forward with both hands cradling his forehead, trying not to throw up.

"Hey, Eric..?" A timid voice rose from behind Kyle and Cartman. "Do you really think that... That maybe they just want to have fun?"

Stan, confused, quickly looked up to try and catch a glimpse of the other person present. As the once blurry figures filled in, he noticed that around a dozen kids were standing huddled before him. His mind flashed with memories of his daring escape, and he realized that the kids here were the same ones he had seen becoming caught in the aliens vile traps.

"No, Butters, of course they don't!" Cartman growled, stepping forward to reveal the soft spoken child just behind him. "They put us in a cage! They're probably gonna kill us!"

A cage? A quick survey confirmed it; Stan and the other twelve or so children were locked in a large square cage that was only slightly tall enough to allow the kids to stand without hitting their heads on its top. The boy turned around to find the cage's door was set just behind him, but the room beyond the metal bars was too dark to see clearly.

A sudden sharp and uncontrollable vocalization startled Stan to turn back towards the others.

"They're... They probably are gonna keep us so they can eat us later!" Tweek sputtered in a single strained breath amongst anxious twitches and gasps. "Oh god! Or they're gonna feed us to their young!"

"What if they're taking us somewhere to experiment on us?" Token spoke up nervously. "You always hear about those people who get abducted and probed by aliens..."

"No, those guys are grey and their ship is round." Cartman immediately dismissed the idea, spurring a confused look from most the other kids. "They don't put you in a cage. I don't think aliens that put you in a cage plan on ever letting you leave."

"I don't wanna be alien food..." A much smaller, softer voice whispered before dissolving into quiet sobs. Stan hadn't even noticed the little Canadian child firmly affixed to Kyle's side.

Stan couldn't take his own fear, frustration and confusion any longer. "Could somebody PLEASE fill me in on what is happening?" He exclaimed, quickly rising to his feet.

But the others were never given a chance to respond. Just then, a bright light from beyond the cage came to life, illuminating the surprisingly cramped room all around them. They now could see that the entire space was around the size of a school bus, but perhaps slightly wider. The cage the kids were trapped in was pressed against the wall and underneath some kind of shelf that could be found on either side of the room. Sitting dead center was a large, somewhat oddly shaped pilots chair, set just behind a curved complex control panel covered in switches, levers, and readouts. Six huge tv screens hung in front of the controls; four of them displayed strange schematics of the ship or what appeared to be the fluctuating numbers of constant system checks. One screen displayed the view directly in front of the ship, which was nearly pitch black aside from the handful of scattered stars. The last of the tv's was blank.

A fully automated door opened from the small wall in the back of the room, located to the right of the captive kids. Stan held his breath as a single ominous figure loudly marched through, finally allowed a glimpse of the creature responsible for the children's capture.

The being stood at an impressive height of somewhere between seven and eight feet, and was coated head to toe in a gleaming black and seaweed green armored pressure suit. It's long, satyr-like legs were topped in thick, heavy boots that accented his every step with a dramatic thud. Around its waist was a jarring array of strange electronics, not unlike the orb shaped devices that had aided in the human's capture. Four arms protruded from its wide chest; two dominate limbs stemming from wide set shoulders and ending in a five fingered hand just as a human's, the other two much smaller and sprouting from either side of the aliens sternum, ending only in mitten like graspers. It's head was completely covered by a huge, menacing looking helmet, decorated with odd fins and flairs at its top and appearing almost beaked due to the air hose entrance jutting from where its nose and mouth would be. And from its neck down to its middle back, then beginning again from its rump was a colossal rat tail, so long and unwieldy that the creature seemed to drag most of it across the ground as he walked.

A sleek electronic device was clutched firmly in one of the aliens smaller arms, which it held close to its armored face. It gestured wildly with its other three forelimbs, furiously pacing back and forth in the cockpits entrance.

"Vyyu, S gkc xofob dyvn drkd drobo gkc cywo cybd yp zbopoboxmo sx grkd usxn yp zkdrodsm lbyynvsxqc droi gkxdon!" The beast spoke in a frightening chorus of shrieks and growls over top a constant low clicking not unlike the sound of echolocation. "S tecd nsn grkd droi dyvn wo kxn klnemdon grkdofob pyyvc S dbkzzon psbcd! Sp ro nyocx'd vsuo drow, ro mkx gkbz rsc vkji kcc dy drsc zvkxod kxn ny sd rswcovp!"

A brief response resonated from the creatures gizmo. "S nyx'd uxyg grkd dy dovv iye. Tecd qod drow robo kxn iye mkx cybd sd yed gsdr rsw. Yfob kxn yed."

Apparently the response wasn't a favorable one. Infuriated, the alien hurled his handheld gadget across the room, impacting the far shelf with a crackling snap that caused all the caged children to jump. With a beastly growl rumbling from its chest, the being's larger left hand ghosted over a slot on its belt for a moment or two, and Stan, to his horror, recognized the shape of a gun in its holster. Thankfully, though, the alien decided against removing his weapon, and instead stormed out of the cockpit with his hands grasping the base of his helmet, roaring what must have been rage filled commentary about his previous conversation.

It wasn't until the aliens voice was far enough away that the kids finally began to move again. They had frozen solid when it had entered, but now most of them quivered uncontrollably in fear.

"Well, SOMEONE has a temper..." Cartman scoffed quietly.

"Dude, not a good time!" Kyle hissed. "The last thing we want is that anger directed at us!"

"Did you see the gun he has on him!?" Tweek whimpered, choking out several extra syllables of mindless vocalizations. "We are dead! We're all dead!"

"It's r-r-really starting to look that way..." Jimmy solemnly eased himself to the floor.

Stan's blood felt ice cold in his veins. This couldn't really be the end, could it? He felt like they had survived so much worse in the past. They had to be able to get through this one little alien encounter, too!

Stan turned and pushed hard on the cage door with all his strength, encouraged by the metal bars creaky groans. But no matter how long he maintained the pressure, the door refused to give an inch.

"We tried that already, Stan" A muffled voice came from somewhere on the other side of the cage, whom Stan instantly recognized as Kenny. "Kyle tried almost everything to get that door open."

With a solemn hum of acknowledgement, Kyle nodded his heavy head. "It's no use. That door will only open if its lifted upwards at the same time significant pressure is applied from the other side. There's nothing we can do from in here."

"Escape may not be our best option in this situation, anyway." Someone added from the cages far end. "From the length of time we've been in here, there's a good chance we arent even on Earth anymore. Even if we broke out of this cage, theres no saying we could safely get off the ship."

Stan was surprised by yet another familiar voice of a kid he hadn't realized had been trapped with them. He tried to look for them, but he couldn't see much beyond the four standing in a line just before him; Kyle and his brother Ike, Cartman, and Butters.

"Wendy?" He tried calling out instead.

"I'm back here, Stan." The gentle voice responded.

The group of captives parted as best they could to allow the long haired girl to slip her way toward the front. She nodded almost grimly at Stan, who replied only with a wide eyed stare and a tilt of his head, then she turned to face the others.

"Listen; I think it would be best if we just lay low and wait to see where this alien is taking us." She stated. "We might get a chance to plead our case to some sort of leader, or maybe find a good escape opportunity later on. We might even find that these creatures arent hostile at all, and eventually they might let us go on their own."

With a roll of his eyes and a shake of his head, Cartman scoffed at Wendy's speech. "Well, yeah, that's fine." He droned, stepping forward. "If you want to wait around with Wendy until you get eaten by the aliens! If we don't escape, we all die!"

"I don't want to die..." Clyde broke down in a mess of defeated sobbing.

"Oh, what, like you're the expert on aliens now?" Kyle grunted, tapping a few reassuring pats on the back of the child now gripping him ever tighter. "What would you know about this guy, fatass? Wendy's plan makes more sense than yours."

"Remember just who's been abducted the most times, Kyle!" The larger boy stomped towards the two brothers. "I'd say that makes me the alien expert around here!"

Kyle didn't give an inch. "I'd say that makes you the expert on _getting bested_ by aliens!"

Before Cartman could retaliate, before Stan could protest, the towering creature suddenly stormed his way back into the room, still muttering something under his breath. His helmet had at some point been removed, exposing his alien face. The beast had three eyes, three nostril slits, a wide and fang filled mouth, and five long growths on its scalp not unlike scorpion tails. He held the very tip of his monstrously long tail in his smaller pair of hands, running his little mitts across a patch of scar tissue that appeared to be causing him discomfort as he made his way towards his pilots chair.

The human children had all fallen silent once more at the creatures reapearance. At least, most of them had. Try as he might, Clyde could no longer hold back his torrent of tears, and he emitted a quiet, uncontrollable whimpering. As he realized he couldn't stop, his fear mounted, which only served to make his cries louder.

Just as he was about to sit down, the alien froze, one large hand gripping the chair to steady it. He turned his head towards the cage beneath the shelf, a piercing anger present in his three blood orange eyes.

"Clyde! Be quiet!" Craig's sharply whispered voice sounded somewhere between commanding and pleading. "You have to stop crying!"

"I don't wanna die, Craig!" The sobbing boys cries escalated into a complete emotional breakdown. "I don't wanna be eaten by aliens! I just wanna go home!"

The loud sobs and hysterical shouting prompted a few of the younger children to join in with their own loud cries, until several of the kids were wailing uncontrollably in terror. The others desperately begged for silence, but the sound only persisted.

His patience gone, the alien furiously stomped towards the cage with a snarl. In a single swift movement, he kicked the front of the cage with all his strength, rattling the metal bars and eliciting screams from the kids before they finally all fell quiet again. He leaned his face down and roared something at full volume to his prisoners.

"Lo aesod, iye cxsfovsxq lbkdc! Sp iye mkx'd lo csvoxd, iye'vv lo rebvon yed dro ksb vymu!"

Accenting his anger with one final kick, the creature growled and returned to his chair, flopping down in a huff and returning to studying the tail still held in his grasp. The frightened kids breathed in terrified gasps, their chests heaving, realizing just how much danger they were in.

After a few tense minutes of silence, the alien breathed what almost sounded like a sigh, tossing the tip of his tail away and letting it flop to the ground beside the cage. With a frustrated and fatigued expression, he leaned forward on the control panel, deftly manipulating the controls as he monitored the six displays before him.

Cartman, defiant to the bitter end, scowled and approached the cage door, pressing his form against the bars and reaching an arm outside.

"Cartman!" Stan gasped. "What the hell are you doing?"

Briefly groping at the ground, Cartman eventually found what he had been reaching for, pulling the end of the aliens rat-like tail towards his face. Just as he suspected, the beasts tail was too thick skinned and unwieldy for him to notcie the tip being moved, so his eyes never strayed from the tvs screens. Satified with his ignorance, Cartman returned his gaze to the object in his palms, paying careful attention to the patch of raw, pink scarring across the side.

"I'm not gonna sit around and let some alien feed me to its young." The large child sneered, lifting the tail even closer.

"Cartman, no!" Kyle pleaded, pulling Ike closer to his chest. "You saw how angry he gets! You're gonna make him absolutely furious!"

Cartman only responded with a devilish grin. "That's the plan." He replied.

Before anyone could stop him, Cartman opened his mouth and sank his uneven teeth into the sensitive tail wound.

Sure enough, the Alien would respond with pure fury.


	5. Chapter 5: Perpetual Motion

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Chapter 5: Perpetual Motion

A howling shriek of surprise and pain erupted from the very core of the bestial alien, echoed all around by the smooth and mostly empty interior of the cockpit. He leapt to his feet in an instant, practically hurling his chair behind him as he whipped around to pull his injured tail away and to face the cage of captives, his eyes burning with a seething rage and his hundred tiny fangs bared as a threat. The entire cluster of trapped children quickly huddled together in the furthest corner of their tomb in fear. That is, all of them except Cartman, who defiantly stood his ground with a smug grin smeared across his face.

The creature didn't hesitate in brutally smashing the cage door with his palm. In a movement almost too quick to process, he lifted the metal bars just slightly before grabbing and pulling back with all his might, nearly ripping the door off its creaky hinges.

Cartman remained firmly rooted in place, not even flinching at the clatter. Though his back was turned to them, he addressed his fellow prisoners.

"Make sure not to let the door-GAHK!"

Cartman's thought was suddenly cut short as the alien thrust a hand into the enclosure and viciously seized the large child by the throat. Cartman struggled and fought, gasping for air as he felt the aliens digits dig deeper into his neck and lift him up and out of the cage, bringing his face mere inches away from the beasts. As the alien turned back around, he half-heartedly kicked the door closed with one foot, more focused on the juvenile in his grasp than the rest of the captives.

But just before the cage could shut once more, Stan, without really thinking, instinctively dove forward, blindly jamming his hand in the way so the door impacted his knuckles rather than its latch, leaving the cage open.

"Gri iye wscobklvo, gybdrvocc ebmrsx!" The monster screamed, violently shaking the thrashing child in his grip, not even the slightest bit concerned as he watched the boy's pink face fade into an oxygen starved blue. "Iye nkbo dy nopi wo!? S rkfo xy aekvwc sx rebvsxq iyeb cybbi mkbmkcc sxdy dro expybqsfsxq fkmeew yp czkmo!"

With his attention thoroughly focused on Cartman, whose mouth desperately plead for air like a beached fish, the other children were free to make an escape. On swift but silent feet, they poured out of the cage together, most of them heading for the still open door at the rear of the cockpit in search of safety. Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, however, (though they had sent their younger siblings to flee with the others) circled around the aliens massive figure. As much grief as their 'friend' had always caused them, his little trick HAD succeeded in breaking them free, so they couldn't allow this monster to choke the life out of him. Somehow, they would have to return the favor.

And what better way, Kenny decided, then with the same nasty trick? What isn't broken, after all...

Mustering all his strength, Kenny darted to where the tip of the creatures tail limply layed on the sleek floor and stomped as hard as he could directly on the painful scar tissue.

The alien instantly threw his head back with another ear splitting shriek, stumbling a few steps backward, parting Stan and Kyle in opposite directions, and causing the hand he had clenched over the child's windpipe to reflexively release its iron grip. Cartman awkwardly fell through the air, reaching out a hand and batting the beasts holster as he passed, sending the gun to the floor with him. The alien gathered his tail into his four hands, desperately applying pressure to his wound in an attempt to relieve the pain, while Cartman, hoarsely coughing as his body attempted to recover from the lack of oxygen, struggled to his hands and knees to crawl towards and retrieve the strange, high tech weapon.

As the excruciating pain finally began to ease, the creature furiously searched his surroundings to see what had hit him. But fury turned to shock as he quickly realized that his cage was empty; all the captives had managed to escape. His hand instinctively dove for his side in an attempt to retrieve his weapon, only for him to discover that it, too, was missing. Panic was quickly setting in, and his three eyes worriedly darted about before they locked onto the heavy set boy on the floor before him.

Cartman glanced up just in time to see the massive beast lunging towards him and the weapon now held in his grasp.

"Stan! Catch!" Cartman screamed, hurling the gun past the alien at the last second.

With a startled gasp, Stan leapt into the air and grabbed the thrown weapon before it could sail over his head. The aliens attention stayed completely focused on the moving weapon, abandoning his attack on Cartman and now viciously darting towards Stan with outstretched claws.

Like a dangerous game of 'hot potato', Stan had to quickly pass off the gun to protect himself from the creature. "Kyle!" He shouted, panicking and awkwardly tossing the object to the third boy of the chain.

Kyle leaned back and tried his best to catch the botched throw, but the weapon bounced off of his fingertips and fell to the floor with a heavy clatter. Sure enough, Stan was no longer the aliens target, and it instead desperately threw itself to the guns new position. Knowing full well he would never be able to pick the object up in time, Kyle instead moved around and pulled his foot back.

"Kenny! Go long!" He cried, kicking the weapon and sending it wildly skidding through the doorway and into the next room. Kenny didn't hesitate in chasing after the device, taking off at top speed, the alien hot on his heels and the other three boys bringing up the rear.

The room just beyond the cockpit was enormous. One of the walls was coated top to bottom in strange yet incredible electronics, complete with an entire spectrum of flashing lights, display monitors, and tangled wires snaking all about. Anchored to the floor were a variety of contraptions with open slots where some other mysterious alien object was meant to be inserted. In the center of it all was a huge metal case erupting from the floor that, judging from the ominous hums and crackles emanating from within, acted as the housing for the most important and complicated devices controlling the ships entire power grid.

Half of the wall opposite the electronic collage was taken up by what appeared to be an entire mini laboratory. Alien tools of all shapes and sizes lined the long counter top, with dozens of closed drawers down below and shelves hanging up above. Nearest to the front were a few larger cupboards, some of which appeared to be temperature controlled, their contents kept in a constant environment of either freezing cold or uncomfortably warm. A single desk sat just a few feet from the counter, set with only a single, strangely shaped chair and littered with papers, notebooks, and folders made of various unknown materials and coated in the scribblings of a foreign tongue. And sparsely scattered about the floor were some sizable boxes, shaped and marked like packages in the mail but made of an oddly colored metal rather than cardboard.

Next to the lab sat an odd stage platform, completely encased in glass walls with open sliding doors at its front. A colossal and frightening machine hung from the ceiling above the raised, reflective ground, with two huge, drill shaped protrusions pointing at center stage. A single electronic panel could be found just beside the open doors; its interface made up of a strangely plain looking keypad with a decidedly odd rotary wheel beside it marked with three deep lines radiating from its center.

And finally, at the rear of the room were a few scattered shelves and filing cabinets filled to the brim with journals and notes of all kinds. Two more automatic and futuristic looking doors could be found on either side of the far wall, no doubt leading even further into the bowels of the ship.

But by far the most important object in the room was the huge pressurized bulkhead located just before the electronics wall met the rear. No doubt about it; this was the space ships main exit.

The events that followed after the alien and the four boys sprinted into the ships main room were nothing short of pure chaos.

The other children, who had previously been scouring the room for anything that could help their escape, all instinctively turned towards the open door as the sound of the aliens heavy footsteps came storming in. Panic set in almost immediately, and the frightened kids darted for safety, hiding themselves behind shelves, packages, or whatever else could protect them from the villainous predator's three eyed gaze. But the alien didn't even notice the others; his focus still set squarely on his skidding weapon and the orange clad juvenile chasing after it.

Even though he was mere inches away from the retreating object, Kenny could sense the creature bearing down on him. Picking up the gadget would take precious time that he simply couldn't spare. Instead, he continued with Kyle's line of thought, looking up only briefly so he could fix his aim on whomever was closest to him.

"Token!" Kenny shouted through his thick hood towards the child pressed against the rear wall. "Grab it!"

Token barely had a chance to process what had been shouted to him before Kenny whipped his foot back and sent the strange object rocketing towards him. Not about to question what or why; Token instantly dove on top of the weapon, clutching it firmly to his chest as he rose to his feet once more. He looked up to check for further instruction from his classmate, but instead found to his horror the towering monster furiously charging towards him. Adrenaline surged through his veins, and he took off running at top speed, his white knuckled grip on the gun holding firm.

"Don't let that asshole take the gun back!" Cartman hollered so that all the kids could hear. "It's 'Keep Away' from Captain Lizard Lips!"

The larger child's piercing tone drew the attention of the beastly alien, whose fury was only building with his fatigue. In his anger, he began to forget the dangers of leaving his weapon in the hands of his enemies. His rage completely clouded his judgement until all he cared about was getting ahold of one of these creatures so he could make it suffer for ever daring to cross him. So instead of continuing in pursuit of his weapon, the blinded beast lunged towards Cartman with a sickening shriek of raw hatred.

But, due to the carelessness of his fury, it was now even easier for the escapees to keep the monsters focus constantly changing so as to not get hurt. His animalistic thought process could only pay attention to whatever had last caught his attention. So, right before he could attack Cartman, all Token had to do was make a loud production out of passing the gun to Bebe. When he was inches away from her, it was Tweek who next took the heat, leaping out from behind a metal case and wildly screaming for the beasts attention. And just as he managed to close the distance between himself and the fidgeting child, Craig flew out from behind cover to forcefully stomp all his weight onto the creatures still aching tail. Despite the comedic appearance of it all, it was ultimately their lives that were at stake in this game. Each one of them had to play their part to keep things moving, which was surprisingly made easier by the fact that there wasn't really enough cover to hide all of them at once. But if they could just keep it going for a little while longer, the aliens seething rage would eventually exhaust every ounce of his energy. They had to wear him out.

Unfortunately, such an intricate dance of deception only needed one misstep to fall apart completely.

The alien was in the process of chasing down Wendy when it happened. The thud of a body hitting the floor echoed through the entire room. There, lying helpless on the ground, was little Ike, having tripped over his own two feet while dashing between cover. The chaos of the keep away went dead silent as the eyes of everyone present fell on the fallen child. And things only got worse as Ike, recognizing the terrifying position he was now in, went into a panic, shrieking a fearful cry and struggling wildly in an attempt to stand back up and retreat.

Even blinded by anger, the alien knew an easy target when he saw one. He took off like a bullet towards the temporarily immobilized child. Several of the others madly darted about shouting various insults and challenges at the charging beast, Wendy tried passing the futuristic weapon off to Stan, a few even became brave enough to attempt an attack on the aliens over exploited weak spot. But Ike's pitiful wails held its focus in place; no matter how hard the others tried, they simply couldn't distract it now.

The instant it became apparent that distractions wouldn't work, Kyle, without a second thought, took off at light speed towards his brother, ready to do the unthinkable. As the alien made his final lunge, Kyle threw himself into his sibling, just barely knocking Ike out of the way in time and putting himself in the path of the beast instead. The aliens vice grip instantly locked around Kyle's chest.

It finally caught one. Now they would know his wrath.


	6. Chapter 6: Before Our Eyes

**Sorry for the huuuuge wait. I didn't have any inspiration to write for a long time. I still have this entire story plotted out. I just have to write it, heh.**

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 **Chapter 6: Before Our Eyes**

A sudden and fiercely intense pressure clamped down around Kyle's rib cage, pinning his arms painfully to his sides and constricting air flow within his chest. He only barely managed a strained groan of quiet agony as he was lifted high into the air, briefly bringing him nose to nose with the monstrous visage of the three eyed alien kidnapper. The beast panted heavily, a glimmer of anger still present past his fatigue. It had been quite a struggle, but he had caught one of the escaped juveniles at last. The other children, meanwhile, had frozen all around him, not sure what they could possibly do to rescue the aliens young hostage.

Just then, a shrill, frantic threat pierced the thick tension hanging in the air.

"Leave him alone!" Stan defiantly screamed, the aliens weapon in his quivering grip, pointed at the beast before him. "I mean it! Put him down or I'll shoot!"

A brief moment of panic overtook the foreign creature as his eyes turned to find his own blaster aimed his way. But the surge of primal fear sparked something in his memory, something that he had foolishly overlooked in his previous fury.

In a series of swift, fluid motions, the alien moved the captive child from his dominant right hand to his two left hands. At the same time, his smaller right forelimb dipped quickly beneath his larger left, where a hidden holster held a back-up projectile weapon for just such an emergency. He withdrew it and firmly pressed the muzzle of the high tech, albeit far smaller blaster into Kyle's temple, using his only empty arm to gesture wildly towards Stan and his stolen weapon.

"S bopeco dy lo drbokdoxon li iye zkdrodsm, lbksxvocc lbkdc!" He screeched, taking careful steps backwards towards the wall of otherworldly electronics. "Iye kvv gsvv qy lkmu sxdy drkd mkqo drsc sxcdkxd, yb drsc yxoc cuevv gsvv lo nomybkdsxq wi crszc revv!"

"Stan..!" Kyle weakly groped at the smaller appendage that constricted his form. "Shoot him..!"

The desperation in his dear friend's strangled voice was all he needed for an excuse. Without another moments hesitation, Stan lifted the barrel towards the aliens eyes and squeezed the trigger.

The weapon discharged with a mighty blast, its recoil hurling Stan backwards. At that same instant, a greenish white orb of raw plasma energy shot out the muzzle at an incredible speed, accompanied by a blinding aura of light and an unnerving, somewhat menacing hum. The alien had less than a fraction of a second to react, ducking his head down just in time to feel the heat of the passing projectile barely graze across his scalp. The shot instead collided with the far wall coated in gadgets and monitors, causing an explosion of sparks, wires, and molten alien plastics to shower onto the armored back of the beast. A surge of intense energy shot through the entire circuitry in a split second, overloading the system and causing other screens and bulbs and gizmos to crack and burst even if they had been no where near the initial impact. The chorus of snaps and explosions startled the children standing closest to the impact site, and they ran towards the opposite wall in search of safety.

With only a brief metallic groan as a warning, the ships air-locked bulkhead failed, the upper right corner instantly peeling downward like a two foot thick banana peel.

A deafening alarm began to wail from speakers previously hidden inside the ceiling, accompanied by flashing red warning lights that seemed to accent the already failing and flickering standard lighting of the ships interior. Screens that remained intact began to display a variety of error messages and scrambled images, and hanging wires hissed with a sparking fury. Both the alien and his hostage looked about anxiously as the place seemed to fall apart all around them.

Suddenly, a beastly voice arose from somewhere in the cockpit. The growls and clicks of its alien tongue were somewhat hidden behind a mild static fuzz, making it obvious the sound was originating from the pilots discarded communicator.

"Kobyxked? Kobyxked, boczyxn!" The incoming voice roared. "Yeb coxcybc sxnsmkdo drkd iyeb crsz rkc loox cofobovi nkwkqon. Ovomdbsmkv mywzyxoxdc kbo pksvsxq, kxn iyeb ksbvymu rkc loox mywzbywscon. Go'bo kmdsfkdsxq dro crszc covp nocdbemd zbydymyv. Klkxnyx iyeb mkbqy swwonskdovi kxn zbozkbo pyb owobqoxmi bodbsofkv, xyg!"

Though the children had no way to understand the bizarre transmission, they could tell that whatever it was made the alien suddenly alarmed. Keeping his weapon at Kyle's head, he quickly glanced to his left to where the open glass sliding doors to the elevated stage and overhanging machine were.

Finally recovering from the blaster's kick, Stan pushed himself back to his feet. Even with lights flashing and alarms screaming, and even though he felt as if he had just been kicked in the chest by a horse, his focus was still on his friend, and the fact that he was still in the enemies possession, his struggles having diminished to a weak writhing. With newfound vigor, Stan lifted the barrel towards the towering beast once more, bracing himself for the kick back as he pulled the trigger.

But the blaster merely emitted a solemn error tone. The color immediately drained from Stan's face; he was out of ammo.

Before Stan could even begin processing his disappointment, the hanging machine in the stage room instantly came alive, lighting up like a beacon as bolts of blue energy radiated from all around it. Red and Bebe, both of whom had taken shelter from their foe in the smaller room, fled with a startled shriek, no longer willing to stand beneath the intimidating electronic. Somewhere in the ships ceiling, another monstrous alien voice was heard growling out words at a rhythmic pace. Judging by the intonation, the kids could only assume it was a count down.

"Cdki lkmu!" The pilot screeched, sweeping his weapon across each child as a warning before returning it firmly to Kyle's temple. He quickly made his way towards the platform beneath the sparking machine overhead, keeping his three eyes trained on his escaped cargo in case any of them dared to make a move as the voice above continued its monotone counting. "Iye gbodmron sxcomdc rkfo besxon ofobidrsxq! Led S cgokb S'vv rkfo wi bofoxqo! Iyeb vsddvo pbsoxn robo sc qysxq dy ceppob pyb ofobidrsxq iye'fo nyxo! Kxn kpdob S'fo lbyuox rsw, S'vv lo lkmu dy eddobvi nocdbyi dro bocd yp iye!"

Kyle, struggling to stay conscious despite his severely constricted airway, weakly turned his gaze to the menacing technology above, which now seemed to roar with an unfathomable energy surging through its wiring, charging it up. The lights and alarms had risen to a fever pitch, and the children could only barely make out the alien voice's countdown seemingly coming to a close. Whatever this machine was going to do; it was aimed directly for the pilot and his hostage.

"Kyle!" Stan heard himself shriek, scrambling into a blind sprint towards the beast before him.

In that last moment, the alien quickly brought his blaster away from Kyle and pointed seemingly towards Stan instead. Instinctively, Stan froze, looking to the weapons muzzle like a deer in the headlights. As the hanging machine began glowing orange, the vile creature fired off a single plasma round. Stan's chest heaved in a shocked gasp; he covered his face with his hands as if to spare him the pain of the impending projectile.

Behind him, the large metal case bolted to the floor which housed the ships vital electronic components exploded in a hideous crackle of raw electricity. Stan's eyes snapped open, realizing that the shot hadn't been meant for him at all. A hundred arching fingers of blue lightning bolts hissed and snapped from the gaping hole in the mangled case; the ships final and dramatic cry in its throws of death.

All at once, the machine suspended above the stage rang in an ominous tone, blasting a pillar of orange light from its pointed tip towards the two beings beneath. A strange layer of static interference began to obscure Kyle and the pilot, and the glow only grew in intensity. Just before the light hid them entirely, Stan caught sight of the despicable creature raising his discharged pistol, a disgustingly smug smirk painted across its lips.

In a flash, they disappeared.

Just as they did, the ships entire electronic network of wiring sputtered one last hoarse cough before succumbing to its fatal wounds. All the lights, the alarms, the hissing of wires, the crackling of blue bolts; everything ceased, and the children were bathed in a sudden dark silence.

* * *

The kids froze in utter shock, their minds reeling and trying desperately to comprehend all that had just happened seemingly in an instant. The ship was destroyed, the pilot had vanished, and now they were stranded alone in this metal tomb somewhere light-years away from home.

Stan, his chest still aching from his harsh, desperate gasps for air, found that his eyes were locked on a single point in space; the final place he had seen his best friend before he vanished into thin air. The weak look of pure terror that had been plastered across his pale face was now burned into Stan's memory. Even though Kyle was long gone, he could still see that desperate expression, that horrified plea for help that had gone unanswered.

From behind him, Stan caught the sound of a hushed whimpering.

"Kyle..." Ike sobbed, revealing himself from behind his cover and slowly wandering towards the empty stage platform, tears streaming steadily from his beady eyes.

"He's gone." Wendy, coming to stand beside Stan, stated aloud as if she herself still had trouble comprehending it. "I can't believe he's gone."

"Kenny..?" A small voice similar to Ike's gently whispered, thick with confusion and concern. "What happened to Kyle?"

Kenny, whom, like Stan, had had his vision glued to the space beneath the now silent machine, slowly wrapped an understanding arm around the younger girl clinging to his side. "Shhh..." He pleaded, worried Karen's childlike naivety and bluntness might further upset those around him. "We don't know where he went." Kenny whispered. "But we're gonna have to try and find him."

This suggestion was met immediately with an appalled scoff. "Find him!?" Cartman hissed, weaseling his way out of the cramped space between one of the metallic packages upon the floor and the closed cabinets behind it. "What about us!? We're trapped in that psychotic aliens mangled space ship with no food, no power, and no way to get home! And we're supposed to just magically find Kyle!?"

"As much as I hate to admit it." Token's shoulders fell with a weary sigh. "Cartman's right. We don't even know what planet we're on. Or what galaxy this is!"

"Or how long it'll be before more of those monsters show up to finish us off!" Tweek screeched, fingers tangled in fistfuls of wild hair.

It was true; their situation seemed hopelessly grim. With no idea how to repair the wrecked vehicle and no supplies whatsoever, it almost felt like there was nothing left to do but lay down and await certain doom. But as Stan finally brought himself to turn and face the other stranded children; as his solemn gaze met their expressions of confusion, sorrow, and fear; as that complex, heartbreaking final snapshot of Kyle's face flashed before his eyes once more, he decided he wasn't ready to give up. As desperate as their situation was, Kyle's was surely more so. Stan wasn't about to let the alien win without a fight, no matter how one sided.

"We can figure this out." Stan quickly asserted, his hands clenched in tight fists of determination. "We just need to find a way to restore the power in here. Then we can use the machines to find where Kyle and the alien went, and hopefully find another space ship we can steal to fly back to Earth."

Though Stan's words seemed reinforced by a surprising confidence, the others weren't quite as optimistic.

"Are you insane? We're just kids! There's no way we'll ever fix this space junk!" Red shouted in frustration.

"We're gonna have to try. It's not like we have a lot of options here." Stan reasoned. "We've been through countless scenarios worse than this, and we managed to make it out alive. If we can survive manbearpig, if we can survive zombies and elder gods and giant monster guinea pigs, if we can riddle our way out of caves and evil laboratories and alternate dimensions, then we sure as hell can handle a downed space ship and some kidnapping, three eyed blow hard.

"Now we're all going to have to pull together to do this. Jimmy!" Stan thrust a finger towards the brown haired child balanced on metal crutches.

Jimmy responded with a silent tilt of his head.

"You go to that summer camp every year!" Stan smiled. "You've got to know all about how to survive in the wilderness! Stuff like building campfires and foraging for food, right?"

A glow of pride illuminated Jimmy's previously somber face. "N-not only that," He smirked through his stutter. "But I h-happened to earn every merit badge possible in ad- advanced outd-, outdo-, outd-oor survival."

Stan nodded brightly. "And you, Tweek!" He continued.

The high strung child chirped a strained yelp at the mention of his own name.

"You've got plans for almost every disaster scenario imaginable! And you know how to stay hidden and how to defend yourself from potential threats!"

Tweek grumbled an uncertain huff of affirmation, his eyes darting this way and that.

"We all have something we can contribute. Token took those CPR classes, Bebe knows how to establish a democratic society. Together, we might just be able to pull this off." Stan remarked hopefully.

Ike, whom had spent the entire conversation staring at the machine that took his family away, began wandering back towards the group, whimpering quietly in his sorrow. Overcome with an understanding sympathy but without removing his hold on his own sibling, Kenny knelt down and gently extended his other arm towards Ike as a warm invitation. The miniature Canadian child didn't hesitate in accepting the gesture, finding some small amount of comfort in the familiar brotherly contact.

"Alright, Stan..." Kenny began, rubbing soft circles against the younger children's backs. "So what do we do first?"

Mildly surprised by the question, Stan's face slowly fell as his mind scrambled for a suitable answer.

Sensing his struggle, Jimmy was quick to swoop in with a suggestion of his own. "Well, in a s-standard survival sit- situation..." He mused aloud. "The first course of ac- action is to assess your surroundings."

Stan's eyes snapped forward. Jimmy was right; the escapees hadn't even determined where they were yet. They had no idea what potential useful materials or hidden dangers lurked outside the ships heavy hull. He quickly set his sights on the severely damaged bulkhead door. Though thick and no doubt extremely heavy, the lack of power combined with the huge peel down the top right side most likely meant that any locks or air tight seals were now broken. A strong push should be all it needed.

Stan tromped his way towards the bulkhead where a glimmer of light shined through its gap and gave the exit a hard shove. But it was immediately obvious that, even destroyed, the door was still holding fast. Grunting in frustration, Stan pushed harder against the heavy metal door, using every bit of his weight and every ounce of his strength. He groaned, feeling the faintest movement, struggling to make more progress.

Suddenly, a second pair of hands was beside Stan's, adding to the applied pressure. Clyde had noticed his struggling and came to offer his strength. The door responded by giving just a little more.

Inspired by Clyde, a few others gathered around the bulkhead and added their strength. Even with Craig, Token, Butters, Clyde and Stan all pushing together, their strained growls accenting their determination, they still weren't enough to break the doors hold.

There was only room around the door for one more child to squeeze in and assist. Bebe surveyed who they had remaining, trying to determine who would be best suited to help.

"Cartman!" She yelled, irritated he hadn't decided to help on his own. "Go give it one last push! Your fat ass might be just what we need to pop the thing open!"

Cartman turned to the blond haired female with a sneer. "Don't you call me fat, bitch!" He hissed. "I'll come over there and push you instead!"

Bebe retaliated with her own sharp glare. But as she opened her mouth to respond, Wendy leapt between the two, an idea shining in her dark eyes.

"She's right, Cartman." She nodded, briefly signaling Bebe to play along. "You've got to be the strongest one here! You're probably the only one who could get this door open!"

Played just like a fiddle, the anger in the stout boys face immediately melted into a smug, prideful expression, the previous insult already forgotten. "O-ho! You finally realized how much you need my superior strength!" He smirked, standing taller. "It looks like I'm gonna have to be the main muscle for this mediocre little team here!"

"Just get over here, meat head, before we make you the emergency rations instead." Craig groaned, still putting all his energy into pushing with the others.

Briefly striking a dramatic take-off pose, Cartman took off in a charge towards the space the others left for him. Just as he arrived, he twisted his body and used his shoulder to ram the bulkhead with a surprising amount of momentum, colliding with the metal in a loud bang.

All at once, the doors hold finally failed, suddenly bursting open completely and tossing the startled six children out onto the ground beyond the frame.

Stan weakly lifted his face from the soft, soil-like terrain, shaking some of the loose crumbles off of his cheeks and forehead. He raised his gaze slowly as he finally took in the alien scenery all around.

It appeared as though the ship had landed in a small, overgrown valley, completely walled in by sheer cliff walls of a foreign speckled stone that rose at least 20 feet in the air. From high atop a side of one cliff, clear blue water cascaded down and into a small lake that appeared to run through a small channel between the soil and the base of the heavy rock. Strange plants of varying sizes filled whatever space the water hadn't, most of the flora appearing almost like breeds of jungle plants mixed with some form of prehistoric ferns, and all tinted in unusual colors. Only two trees had taken root in this wild valley, their shape and texture resembling an alien species of coconut tree. A breeze brought a surprisingly familiar scent of fresh running water and damp soil. For a brief moment, Stan wondered if they had landed somewhere back on Earth.

But one glance at the pink tinted sky and the two miniature suns hanging overhead was all it took to realize that this was not their home.

So the question, then, was; what planet was this? Where in the universe had they ended up?

Finding their way home, it seemed, would be even more difficult than they had imagined.

* * *

 **Message me for help decrypting the aliens lines. And please take a moment to review. Thanks.**


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